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Christians, Get Out and Vote

By Bishop William J. Barber II, DMin,Shane Claiborne

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As Christian preachers, we don’t often agree with Donald Trump. But we do agree with one message he has for Christians: we must get out and vote in November.

While we work with many churches and religious organizations to encourage Christians to vote, we are each clear as individuals and brothers in Christ that the last thing we should do if we take our faith seriously is vote for Trump. Still, voting is a gift from God, and we must use it to serve our neighbors and reconstruct a society that works for all of us. At an event in West Palm Beach over the weekend, Trump said, “I love you, Christians. I’m a Christian. I love you. Get out—you gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.”

Trump was speaking at an event called “The Believers Summit,” organized by Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point organization—a religious outreach group closely allied with the Council for National Policy, which has coordinated support for Trump’s candidacy and the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025. On the stump, Trump is now saying the quiet part out loud.

If he is elected in November, this network is prepared to remake the government and maintain power indefinitely, against the will of the majority of Americans. Their supporters won’t need to vote again. Apart from his apparent willingness to subvert the democratic process, Trump is engaged in what the Bible calls “idolatry.”

The Psalmist instructs us, “Do not put trust in princes… in whom there is no salvation.”

But since his first candidacy, Trump has claimed, “I and I alone can fix it.” Any politician who claims to be the once and forever solution to human problems is claiming a role that only God can fill. Trump has long conflated faith with allegiance to him and his political agenda. His antics to woo white evangelical voters are well documented, from his infamous “two Corinthians” speech at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University to his photo-op outside St. John’s Episcopal Church where he used the Bible as a prop.

Last year, Trump began marketing his own “God Bless the USA Bible” for $60 a copy. In his words to Gene Bailey on Flashpoint: “Nobody has done more for Christianity, or for evangelicals, or for religion itself, than I have.” Not even the Almighty, he seems to suggest. But the truth is that no humans have done more than those connected by the Council for National Policy to make the MAGA movement possible. Trump didn’t build these organizations. They made him, erecting the platform and preparing the script to subvert the American tradition of democracy in God’s name. Trump owes his political career to so-called “Christian” nationalism, but this Christianity is not the Christianity of Christ.

Throughout history, Christians have insisted that Jesus is the full revelation of God’s love. But between Jesus and Trump, we cannot help but notice a very different set of values, priorities, and convictions. Jesus teaches us to turn the other cheek, love our enemies, and give to the poor. Donald Trump’s policies have harmed all the people Jesus blessed.

We are both part of a movement called “Red Letter Christians” which refers to the words of Jesus that are often highlighted in red font. We like to say that we are aspiring to “live as if Jesus meant the stuff he said.” When we pay attention to the red letters of Jesus’ teachings, it becomes impossible to reconcile Christianity with the policies and rhetoric of Trump. For this reason, Christians must vote—not only to stop Trump, but to build up a society where everyone does better.

God gave each person created in the divine image a voice to choose what kind of world we want to work toward. Voting is not the only way we can put feet on our prayers, but it is one way.

Voting gives us the opportunity to show solidarity with the most vulnerable people in our society, those Jesus called “the least of these.”

Voting is a way we can show the 140 million poor and low-income people in America that God cares about them, and we care about them too.

Voting is a way we can stand against the principalities and powers that are crushing people’s lives.

So yes, let us vote in November. But may we not be deceived by any effort to manipulate faith to divide people according to our fears. Instead, let’s embrace the moral vision that inspired the abolitionists, women’s suffragists, labor and civil rights movements before us.

May our faith move us to vote from the top of the ticket to the bottom for political leaders who want to lift from the bottom so everyone can rise to a better tomorrow.

William J. Barber, II is the author of White Poverty. Shane Claiborne is the author of Rethinking Life.

About the Authors


Bishop William J. Barber II, DMin

Bishop William J. Barber II, DMin, is President and Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach; a Professor in the Practice of Public Theology and Public Policy and Founding Director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School; Co-Chair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival and Bishop with The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries.

Bishop Barber is the author of five books: We Are Called To Be A Movement; Revive Us Again: Vision and Action in Moral Organizing; The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and The Rise of a New Justice Movement; Forward Together: A Moral Message For The Nation, and White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy.

Bishop Barber served as senior pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church, Disciples of Christ for thirty years and as president of the North Carolina NAACP from 2006-2017, and on the National NAACP Board of Directors from 2008-2020. He is the architect of the Forward Together Moral Movement that gained national acclaim in 2013 with its Moral Monday protests at the North Carolina General Assembly. In 2015, he established Repairers of the Breach to train communities in moral movement building through the Moral Political Organizing Leadership Institute and Summit Trainings (MPOLIS). In 2018, he co-anchored the relaunch of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival— reviving the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign organized by SCLS, under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., worker’s rights movement, women’s rights movement, religious leaders, and people of all races to fight poverty in the U.S. Bishop William Barber II has been arrested more than 15 times in various states standing up with those who have been marginalized by systematic racism.

A highly sought-after speaker, Bishop Barber has given keynote addresses at hundreds of national and state conferences, including the 2016 Democratic National Convention, the homily at the 59th Inaugural Prayer Service for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Vatican at Pope Francis’s encyclical “Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home” and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. In June 2018, he addressed the 5th Uni Global Union World Congress to more than 25 countries.

Bishop Barber is regularly featured in media outlets such as MSNBC, CNN, the New York Times, Washington Post, and The Nation magazine. He was named one of 2020’s BET 100 Entertainers and Innovators and one of the 2019 recipients of the North Carolina Award, the state’s highest civilian honor. He is a 2018 MacArthur Foundation Genius Award recipient and a 2015 recipient of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award and the Puffin Award.

Bishop Barber has had twelve honorary doctorate degrees conferred upon him. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree from North Carolina Central University, a Master of Divinity from Duke University, and a Doctorate from Drew University with a concentration in Public Policy and Pastoral Care.

More articles by Bishop William J. Barber II, DMin >


Shane Claiborne

Shane Claiborne is a best-selling author, renowned activist,
 sought-after speaker, and self-proclaimed “recovering sinner.” Shane writes and speaks around the world about peacemaking, social justice, and Jesus, and is the author of several books, 
including “The Irresistible Revolution,” “Jesus for President,” “Executing Grace,” “Beating Guns,” and his newest book, “Rethinking Life (Feb 2023).” He is the visionary leader of The Simple Way in Philadelphia and co-director of Red Letter Christians. His work has been featured in Fox News, Esquire, SPIN, TIME, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, and CNN.

More articles by Shane Claiborne >